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Topic: Fighting Queens (Read 6824 times)

If I had a two Q hive and seperated two boxes with an excluder (Q in bottom, Q in top), would they attempt to fight/sting each other through the excluder? Would they spend time doing this instead of laying? Just wondering.

I would be more worried about what the bees might do to one of the queens rather than what they would do to each other. As long as each hive was independent of each other, the bees and queens should cope just fine.

But man! Who wants to work a super two queened double stacked set up with possibly upwards of 120,000 bees?

I've been thinking of setting up just one hive as a two queen colony as an experiment during our citrus flow and to compare it with the one queeners in the same yard. I also want to see what happens with the harvest by making a strong colony queenless 3 weeks before the flow. Just experimenting :)

Scott

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I know they can not get through the excluder, thus the name! LOL. But their Butts can get through the excluder and so I am wondering if one might could sting the other--obviously I was not specific enough. LOL. I was interested due to the fact I have another 2-Q hive this year. Just wondering about the ferocity of queens in close proximity. Heck they aren't fighting in the same box or on the same frame, but if both were laying..... I'll run a double excluder with a spacer if needed. I wonder if the bees in the bottom would store honey in the top or would they fill the bottom and lead to swarming in that hive? I also would use the double Q hive to help a weak colony if I needed to keep a queen alive.

In my experience laying queens aren't looking to fight. One of the easiest ways to set up a two queen hive is simply split the brood chamber with a queen excluder. More than 3/4s of the time they will rear a queen in the half that doesn't have one and you'll have two queens with only an excluder between them. I do this unintentionally almost every year when I set up some breeder hives. I put the queen in the top box with one box of brood and an excluder under it so I can easily find her to confine her (for Jenter) or to find larvae the right age (for grafting) and they almost always rear a queen below.

This is great. I was playing with the idea of doing something like this. My idea was to run a second set of supers next to the main hive with plexiglass tubing between them, then exlude both ends. or possibly use two excluders with super in the middle... then the queens could never meet.

But my idea was more of a genetic experiment. If i were to get two queens, one italian and one Carniolan or something...would the workers intermingle and spread their genetic info between the hives so eventually there would be a hybrid.

I suppose this has been done to death already at the big apiaries... but I cannot find much info on cross breeding bees..

IF I can ever figger out one queen hives then maybe. Ive researched it somewhat but right now I think its more than a 1 year beehaver like myself could successfully do. I think either Bjorn or Robo had some pics on their website of a two queen system.

"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

I was thinking 4 medium nucs high for each queen, sitting side by side then a queen excluder. Then you would have to build your supers to fit the new dimensions of those medium nucs which are placed side by side. That is the drawback for me right now. I have enough to do without needing to build 2-3 supers. You could do the same thing with normal boxes by inserting a board down the middle of each. If that has a name I forgot it.

I was thinking 4 medium nucs high for each queen, sitting side by side then a queen excluder. Then you would have to build your supers to fit the new dimensions of those medium nucs which are placed side by side. That is the drawback for me right now. I have enough to do without needing to build 2-3 supers. You could do the same thing with normal boxes by inserting a board down the middle of each. If that has a name I forgot it.

Look at the Kirkhoff Hive or H3

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

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"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

You use all regular equipment. Two deeps side by side then you put a queen excluder underneath the supers. Workers can go to either queen but the queens can't commingle.

The pic as a 1 queen hive not a 2 queen hive

May bee the one you looking for :?

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

« Last Edit: February 14, 2011, 11:25:12 AM by Jim 134 »

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"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/